


His Only Vice

by AngelOfDeath10



Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bickering, F/M, Lime, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-15 22:23:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21025685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelOfDeath10/pseuds/AngelOfDeath10
Summary: Sometimes nights out get long, and sometimes we need someone to talk to, but sometimes it probably would have been better to leave well enough alone. Kaoru is poor at noticing those glaring signs that someone is bad news, but that's why we love her. Meanwhile, Enishi doesn't know what box to place her in.





	His Only Vice

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own RK, feh and bah.
> 
> Originally written in 2019.

In her purple bandage dress and stilettos, Kaoru looked down at the pulsing club from the relative quiet of the VIP lounge and wondered just how long Misao and Megumi really wanted to dance. This was Misao's night, as Kaoru had reminded herself steadily through the makeovers, the men's dance revue, and now this club. Megumi and Kaoru had spared no expense for their friend's bachelorette party, and they went for all the adventurous things they never allowed themselves to do as part of their normal routine. Somewhere, across town, Sojiro was probably doing something similar with all his lawyer buddies.

The evening had been exhausting, to be frank. Kaoru wasn't used to being stared at, and her bushel of shiny black hair hanging down in waves behind her was the only thing about this look she thought she might try again. The dress left no room for error, as bending over slightly put her in danger of exposing herself from multiple angles (or so she imagined). And when Megumi had insisted that this was a dress that demanded no panty line, Kaoru had stared with a puckered expression at the brand new thong underwear they had bought last weekend in preparation and tried not to throw a tantrum like a child. The stilettos were insult on injury, ensuring Kaoru wasn't about to dance because after an entire evening on stilts the balls of her feet throbbed.

So here she was, nursing a vodka tonic while she tried to spot the canary yellow blob of Misao or the teal streak of Megumi in the crowd that moved like waves on the ocean. It looked fun, but Kaoru felt all too keenly that melancholy of approaching change and she wasn't sure she would have been up for it even if her feet weren't strapped in instruments of torture. In a couple weeks Misao would get married, start a family, and float far away from Kaoru and their girls' nights. It felt not only like the end of an era, but like a line in the sand. She may have gotten the steady job, paid her bills, even cooked a bit, but Kaoru did feel like she was behind when it came to adulting.

Ripping her eyes away from the strobing lights and LED displays, Kaoru noticed the man on the other side of the lounge yet again. He, like Kaoru, clearly wasn't here to dance. Unlike Kaoru, he seemed to be downright miserable and out of place in his bespoke navy suit, glaringly white shirt, and a tie in burnt umber that all served to make his fashionably grey hair even more striking. He practically oozed tech money, and a bottle of whiskey sat next to him as he slumped in a seat and seemed to stare at a wall. Kaoru wondered why he was here, and had been allowing her mind to wander to that question with increasing frequency over the past half hour or so.

Steeling herself with a deep swallow, she wiped sweat and condensation from the glass off on her hip before picking up her drink again and wobbling over on her heels to catch the attention of the miserable man. Blue green eyes behind fussy round glasses examined her head to toe without seeing her, but then he focused back on Kaoru's face with an expression like he'd seen a ghost. Kaoru's smile moved from shy to warm and she perched herself as demurely as possible given the shortness of her dress on a seat adjacent to his.

"I thought perhaps misery loves company?"

The unintended fright she had seemed to give him had worn off and those piercing eyes narrowed in her direction as he took a drink. He didn't respond.

"You've got to be warm in all that. I'm warm in _this_." She set her drink down on the small table next to them. "Maybe their air conditioner isn't working well. I tried standing outside the lounge but the humidity was…" Trust Kaoru to find some way to talk about the weather, even when there was no weather. She knew color was already staining her cheeks, but it was probably hard to tell past the blush. Megumi had really overdone the makeup tonight, in her opinion.

His voice was gravel, and even though he must have been drinking since before she arrived there wasn't a bit of slur to his words. "Whatever Otowa paid you, I'll double it if you'll leave me the fuck alone."

"Excuse me?" Kaoru didn't get mad immediately, but a suspicion was forming in her mind that the man swiftly confirmed.

"I'm sure you're quite talented—Otowa wouldn't dare hire a second-rate whore—but I'm not in the mood for her manipulations. I assume a grand will convince you to leave." An expensive looking wallet materialized in his hand and as he was pulling out hundreds Kaoru felt her eye twitch involuntarily.

Anger was always her enemy but in a way it was also an old friend, and it was like a façade of meekness dropped as she picked up her drink and poured it on his head. "You can keep your money. I'm not for sale and if you have the _balls_ to apologize I'll be right there by the window minding my own business and pretending asshats like you don't exist." Rising on feet that ached as much as her pride, she stiffened her spine and stomped back over all the same.

The absolute nerve of entitled assholes like that! If that's the kind of dickery Kaoru had to put up with from trying to have a polite conversation, then why bother trying! Misao often asked Kaoru why she was still single, and Kaoru never had a good answer but now she had absolute proof that men were slime.

Excluding Sojiro, he was a peach and Misao was very lucky.

And, well, Sano was actually pretty sweet if a little rough around the edges.

Saito was a great Captain, if she was thinking on it. He worked her ragged but she always wanted to rise to his expectations and she was better for it.

Yahiko was new at work and already like a little brother to her…

Fine, men were not slime, but a _particular_ man could climb back into the sewer and die for all she cared. Tossing her hair, she looked daggers back in the direction of the silver haired man and hoped that the vodka left in her drink absolutely ruined that stupid dye job of his. He met her stare for stare and blazing eyes that should have intimidated her instead made anger balloon. Flipping him the bird, uncharacteristically, she redoubled her efforts to locate Megumi and Misao in the throng. As soon as they came back she would encourage them all to leave and find a more hospitable place to finish the night.

***

This was how Gein and Otowa wanted to celebrate, and he hadn't planned on joining them but a drink had seemed like a good idea and before he knew it he was four drinks into the evening and brooding on what next steps he had to take to bring Shishio in line with his vision for the future of the organization. They had carved up the city with a competitively firm handshake tonight, but Enishi trusted that snake about as much as he trusted Gein to stay sober. That middle aged lush was probably snorting something in the bathroom even now. His ability to find dealers anywhere and at any time was almost impressive, and Enishi wished Gein would lend that quick thinking to other aspects of his work.

This noisy club was Otowa's hunting ground, and she was no doubt picking up some bright young thing to use and throw away for the evening. Enishi didn't specialize in vices, but he encouraged them in others because known weakness was easier to exploit. They had attended the meeting with him so a little indulgence was expected from their boss, and Enishi didn't disappoint. Inui, Kujiranami, and Yatsume would be jealous at what they would no doubt perceive as favoritism, but stoking rivalries among his lieutenants would help light a fire under them. They had been complacent too long with the unsteady truce with Shishio these past months.

But it had been a step too far when the raven haired temptress finally made her way across the room in the stifling VIP lounge. She had been giving him calculated looks ever since she had arrived alone to the VIP lounge, and that kind of attention was unusual enough in Enishi's world to make him suspicious. Otowa was always saying that he needed to relax, and the only sin she put any stock in was lust so it didn't take an evil genius to see where all this had come from. A pretty face didn't sway Enishi any more than a wad of cash or a quick high. This woman couldn't make him stronger, which made her useless.

The fact that the woman shared more than a passing resemblance to his dead sister didn't escape him, and he made a note to punish Otowa subtly at some point in the future for the presumption. Or at least he had thought there was a resemblance when she first approached, despite that dress that barely covered anything and left nothing to the imagination. But as soon as she opened her mouth the likeness faded and Enishi felt the full force of annoyance at himself for the way his blood stirred in his veins at her broad hint he should remove his clothes due to heat. Otowa needed to know that her attempt at being shrewd had failed and Enishi was still a paragon. He felt his offer was rather fair to the dark haired woman considering no effort was needed on her behalf.

The liquid that dripped down his scalp onto his suit jacket told him he had miscalculated. It wasn't to be borne. A drip curved down his face and met his lip with an unexpected burst of sweetness. With a sneer he shrugged out of his jacket and loosened his tie. Rolling up his sleeves, he stood and thought about next steps.

If he had the _balls_ indeed. That woman had no idea who she was messing with.

***

Once the man in glasses exited the VIP lounge Kaoru felt like she could breathe again. After the righteous anger calmed a bit she regretted pouring her drink on his head, partially because it wasn't really the high road in that fight and partially because that drink had cost a lot of money and she was thirsty in the ongoing heat of the club. Kaoru unstrapped her shoes and flexed aching feet in front of her. The pastel pink pedicure she had gotten this week reminded her of spring, and she wished she had sprung for some art like Misao had done with hers. Her best friend would only get married once, God willing, and Kaoru should enjoy being maid of honor.

An entire bottle of sealed, top shelf vodka landed in front of her field of vision followed by a similarly unopened liter of tonic water.

"They used to treat malaria with this, in a more concentrated dosage." It was said casually, but the gravelly tone wasn't particularly conversational all the same. Kaoru, for her part looked up in more than a bit of shock at the man in glasses. He was opening up the bottles in front of her, tiger tattoo standing out from wrist to elbow on his arm. Two glasses in hand, he poured a drink and pushed it in front of her before pouring one for himself.

Kaoru crossed her arms in front of her. She knew a peace offering when she saw one, but at the same time this wasn't an apology. "You could have just bought me another drink."

"This way you would know there wasn't anything in it other than what you see." He offered it up as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Kaoru realized with something akin to horror that she never would have assumed he was trying to drug her as a first thought. Sure, she would have probably accepted the drink with a flush of satisfaction, then proceeded not to drink it as she pondered how untrustworthy this guy might be but attempted rape wouldn't have been the thought she had out the gate.

Staring at the drink in front of her, then up at the man who was grimacing at the taste of the vodka tonic he had mixed for himself, Kaoru narrowed her eyes. "What is this about?"

"I know something about pride." The man sat down, propping his feet up on a nearby chair. He had certainly wounded hers with his assumptions about the nature of her employment. "If it makes you feel any better, there are far more people than you suspect who would have taken the money without a second thought."

That was probably true, but Kaoru still felt the conspicuous lack of apology and wasn't going to soften up on that point. "My self-respect is worth more than you offered me, thanks."

"There's nothing inherently degrading about sex work, assuming the person performing the work entered into the profession without external duress." His words were an evil web, sowing doubt that she was actually a wounded party here. Shaking her head to clear it, Kaoru snatched up the drink and sipped it while boring a hole in the man with her newly furious stare.

"You should still apologize for calling me a whore. I'm pretty sure women who perform that kind of work don't like being disrespected any more than I do."

The man looked unamused that Kaoru wasn't falling for his gaslighting, but he also seemed willing to cut his losses. "I made an assumption and I was wrong."

That was a statement of fact and not an apology! "You have done everything I didn't ask you to do and are avoiding the only thing I did ask of you Mr.…"

"Yukishiro." He supplied flatly.

"Mr. Yukishiro." His name felt as frosty as his demeanor. "Kindly apologize or wander back over to your dark corner, please."

There was a certain amount of glower to him as he thought about her words. Teeth clenched he ground out. "I apologize for the offense."

Having gotten what she wanted, Kaoru beamed at him once more as she had when she first approached him. "That wasn't so hard was it? I'm sorry for dumping my drink on your head. You already looked like you were having a bad day and I don't suppose that made it any better."

Yukishiro looked like he had whiplash from Kaoru's sudden change in temperament. Kaoru moved to the bench next to the window rather than the chair she was in so she could draw her feet under her and to the side, shoes abandoned under the table. The skin that met the glass felt cool, and she leaned more of herself on it for the relief.

"I feel like I often get on the wrong foot with people when we first meet, but things work themselves out. Everyone deserves a second chance at a first impression, don't you think?" She didn't actually feel that charitable, but she recognized that this prideful man had had to make at least a little effort to right his wrong so he couldn't be all bad. Most people would have ignored her and left. This might be marginally better than hanging out with her melancholy thoughts. "Kaoru Kamiya, by the way. I'm here with my friends, but it's been a long night and I'll actually be really happy when I can take a shower and crawl into bed. This isn't really my scene."

***

"What is your _scene_, then?" The evening had gone from dull and procedural to vivid once he had decided he would do what he needed to with the goal of seducing this woman and then throwing his words back in her face, assumptions now based in fact. It couldn't be that hard, Otowa was only slightly above average in looks and intelligence and she managed to secure any number of partners of either gender. One step back before two more forward made the apology only slightly painful to offer, but Kamiya wasn't following an understandable pattern.

Her body language previously, and even now, suggested that she would be susceptible to his physical appearance. And yet she wasn't being particularly forward. If anything, as she spoke she was getting more reticent and proper.

Judging by the quality of her clothing she wasn't from money, old or new, and in his experience free gifts often swayed people. And yet she wasn't outwardly pleased with his initial peace offering, no matter how expensive the vodka might be. She only took minimal sips of the drink he had poured her.

She was nattering on about something having to do with a wedding, not her own, and he was only half listening as he took the time to examine her more closely. There was always a hint of a smile playing on her mouth, and she talked with her hands as she vented about all the work she had been doing to help this friend of hers with various details and appointments leading up to the wedding. Enishi understood that big weddings displayed status, but if you had the money to spend on a spectacle then clearly you should hire experts. Her efforts sounded exhausting and pointless, and he told her so, somehow invested in the conversation despite the topic being insipid.

"Helping a friend is never pointless. Who did you call the last time you had to move?"

It had been years since he had switched condos. "My employees."

"Oh," She looked at him with pity, and Enishi wished he had answered differently. "I guess successful people don't have time for personal stuff. I could never be a CEO or something, in meetings all day long. Listening to people go on and on about things they plan on doing, and charts and metrics and stuff. It sounds boring."

She wasn't wrong. The higher up in the organization Enishi had gotten, the more time he had spent in meetings with people and much less time in the field. His rise had been meteoric, and he almost missed those days when all he needed to do was crack a few heads instead of planning out increasingly complex money-making schemes. "Meetings serve their purposes. I don't tolerate words without action."

"You sounded just like my boss, right then. Well, my boss' boss really. Dispatch doesn't really report to the Captain, we report to a senior manager and he reports to the Captain. Every so often he comes in to give us performance evaluations." She tossed back more of her drink, seemingly because her throat was dry from speaking so much but she gave him a sidelong glance and Enishi knew somehow he was making inroads to his original plan by doing nothing but listening.

"Police dispatch." Enishi said somewhat incredulously. For all intents and purposes he was chatting up a cop, of all people. The irony was not lost on him.

Kaoru shifted seemingly uncomfortably, and as she got into a better position Enishi noticed how one side of her chest was about to slip out of her dress. A part of his brain he had ignored for a healthy portion of his life screamed at him to see how that played out. Oblivious to the resurgence of her conversational partner's hormones, Kaoru continued. "Yeah, it's not glamorous, or even that well-paying, but I really think I'm helping people and I'm pretty good at it. The benefits are good, and I like my coworkers. The hours kind of stink if you want to have a social life. What do you do, Mr. Yukishiro?"

"Enishi." It came out of his mouth before he could think about it.

"What?"

He had to feign an indifference he was increasingly not feeling as he reiterated. "My name. Enishi."

Sitting up straighter, but also shifting her body a little closer to his chair, Kaoru smiled slowly. "Enishi," she repeated, and his name coming out of her mouth sounded foreign. No one called him by his given name these days. Boss sure, Yukishiro to his peers, but never Enishi. He like the way Kamiya's lips puckered at the last syllable. Even the almost sickly sweet vodka tonics were tasting better, so perhaps he was merely getting drunk. That made more sense than any alternative.

***

Kaoru was sure Enishi was avoiding the question. "You said you had employees, what kind of company do you work for?"

Taking off his glasses to rub at his eyes, he casually threw out, "We dabble in various things. Investment, domestic and foreign, pharmaceuticals, security. I specialize in finding solutions to tricky problems."

"You must be busy. You business types always are, but it's ok to do something for yourself you know. What good is all that money if you don't have any time for fun?" He seemed disgruntled at the implication that he didn't have any fun, but he did look like a miserable bastard even before their little altercation. "You have got to have a hobby or something you enjoy doing."

The music shifted to a remix of a song she liked and Kaoru felt her body sway in time to the beat. She thought about all the shopping she'd have to suffer through alone, now that Misao would probably be too busy house shopping with Sojiro in some random suburb. The smiling man had said more than once he wanted to create the happy family life he himself hadn't had, and Misao was on board to make as perfect a life as she could. Kaoru couldn't place herself in that same mindset even thought she was an orphan at this point in her life. If her father were still around, maybe she'd had tried to do the whole marriage thing to make him happy. Right now it was unthinkable. Focusing in on the man in front of her, she wondered why all the beautiful ones seemed broken.

"I like exercise. I sleep."

"Exercise is good, but I don't think sleep counts as a hobby." Enishi looked over to where his partially drunk whiskey still lay along with his discarded suit jacket. Kaoru supposed he wasn't into the soda, but he also seemed unwilling to part from their conversation and she felt a little glow in her heart.

"You said something I enjoy, other than work." He allowed a softer expression to cross his face, even if it wasn't a smile. Running his hand through his hair, it appeared to come away sticky and he flexed his fingers while making a disgusted grimace. Kaoru's smile widened.

They passed a companionable moment where neither spoke. Kaoru wasn't about to admit it, but the more she thought about it the more she realized that if you boiled it down all she did for a hobby was exercise and sleep. Shopping wasn't really something she enjoyed, and watching movies and TV was a casual way to pass the time. Maybe she should try to take up jewelry making or learn an instrument so that she could at least talk about something if someone asked her about her own hobbies. Enishi seemed to be content to lapse into silence and he took the break in conversation as a signal to fetch his things and then settle back near Kaoru with his drink of choice.

He wasn't to be trusted, a wise part of her mind said, but the other part of her that always had a place for misfits and grumps told her she was just a lonely girl talking to a lonely boy. It didn't have to be more than that. Another song came on that she enjoyed and she turned her attention back down to the ground floor.

"Why do you think we're the kind of people who are up here instead of down there?" It was a sudden thought, wistful.

The words came too close to her ear, and Kaoru tried not to start when she realized he had moved from his chair to sit next to her on the bench and get a glimpse of her vantage point. "Explain." Enishi looked down, not at her, which made his proximity less disturbing but still electric.

Clearing her throat, she tried to put the thought together. "I'm stubborn, and I think you are too. If we really wanted to be down there dancing we would be. But something in us isn't drawn in."

"You might as well ask why people have different favorite colors. Our brain chemistry and life experiences are different. Ultimately, preference is meaningless."

"But what if it was the other way around, and the things we like shape who we are instead? I mean, I did kendo for years. Sometimes if someone gets too close to me I get this feeling like there should be a shinai in my hand. Crowds that press that close often make me antsy…"

Enishi pushed at his rolled up sleeve and Kaoru took a moment to examine the tiger on his arm. It looked like he had had the tattoo a while and she wondered what a teenage Enishi would have been like that he needed to get something so prominent. Did he have other tattoos? It seemed like too forward of a question somehow. He must need to wear long sleeve shirts every day, even in summer when he was at work.

"I also like my space." It was probably true, but at the moment when if she twitched her pinky she'd nearly be touching his arm, it also felt like a lie. "And by coincidence my exercise also happens to feature swords. But mine can actually do damage."

"Hey! Get hit hard enough by a shinai a few dozen times and you'll realize that even with all the padding it hurts." It seemed like the most natural thing to chop at his arm to make her point, and before she made contact he caught her hand. It was such a fast motion, Kaoru didn't have time to be anything but shocked. He went from seemingly ignoring her to grasping her in a way that wasn't painful but hinted that it could be if he desired it. "Sorry, I shouldn't have, um—"

His gaze swept her the same way it did when she had first approached him, but now there was a question in his eyes. It felt like an invitation, in a way, but at once he seemed to fade back to cold disinterest and let her hand fall as he quickly reached for his whiskey instead and drained the shot he had poured. Kaoru wasn't sure what had happened, but she realized she needed to make a choice to advance or retreat.

***

Normally Enishi was confident in his abilities, but he was also a person who was so in touch with the workings of his body that when something was going on he didn't anticipate it was like a mechanic being unable to fix his own car. Right now, instead of smoothly executing his original plan to effectively control this woman, he found himself wanting to participate rather than dominate. He didn't mind discussing these pointless things she brought up, he even wanted to know more about her time practicing kendo even if he felt like it was a lesser art built for sport rather than real battle.

Mortifyingly, merely touching her hand made him want to pull her into his lap and run his hands through her loose hair. He wanted to kiss down her jawline and map her teeth with his tongue. Manufactured interest had given way to authentic interest and inconvenient lust. Suddenly time was of the essence because she may have mistaken him for a businessman but there was no hiding the truth if Gein and Otowa returned and addressed him as they normally would.

"Enishi," His name on her lips sent a shiver down his back and he knew he probably looked annoyed as he shifted on the bench to face Kaoru. He wasn't annoyed at her, he was annoyed at the inconvenience of wanting something he couldn't have—not in the long term, not if he was going to be honest with himself. "I should go look for my friends," She sounded unconvinced, and he knew he looked even more severe as he thought about how to protest her withdrawal. Reaching down to grab one of her shoes, the deep vee of Kaoru's dress gaped enough to allow the outline of a handful of breast before her hair swept down to obscure the view. There was no time in recent memory where he recall feeling painfully aroused like this. It seemed like madness, but he didn't particularly feel like fighting it.

"Stay." He meant for it to be inviting, soft, but he realized he was probably incapable of that when it came out a barked order. Kaoru winced and as she sat up again, shoe in hand, and she didn't look pleased. "I didn't mean that like it sounded."

"Against all expectation, I'm really enjoying talking with you, too. But it's been a long night and—oompf!"

Enishi grasped the shoe so she couldn't use that heel as a weapon in retaliation and sealed his lips over hers. Tonight might be all they got. When was he going to get away from his duties to go on a date? He didn't keep normal hours with normal people. Besides, it would only be a matter of time before Kaoru figured out what kind of man he was and then she would ask something impossible from him like never see her again. He knew himself and his possessive nature and he could only be poison in what sounded like a sickeningly normal life she had crafted for herself.

Restraint had been difficult, but he had not touched her other than with his lips. When he pulled back he tried his earlier order as a question to see if it sounded less autocratic. "Stay?"

Stunned, eyes shining with the flashing lights coming from downstairs, Kaoru bit her lip and sighed so deeply it felt like it came from her soul. "That should _not_ have been persuasive."

When she grabbed his tie and used it as leverage to pull him in for another kiss, he was glad he had loosened it previously because she was stronger than he suspected.

***

Megumi checked her phone again for what felt like the thousandth time. Misao was asleep in an awkward sideways position on a chair. Even though the music was pounding away as energetically as ever, not so many people were left on the floor. Security would probably come clear them out so the club could close soon, and she wished they would hurry up. Checking up on the couple in the windowsill, she shook her head incredulously. Kaoru was twined around the strange man like ivy on a tree and if it weren't for the fact that Megumi was seriously worried about leaving her to her own devices she would have called a ride and left with Misao ages ago.

In their own world was seriously an understatement and Megumi watched with cool professionalism as she wondered how many hickies her friend would have by the end of all this. She could have interrupted them, sure, but there was something about the man Kaoru was currently sucking the face off of that said don't touch. Trust Kaoru to find the most dangerous guy here and win him over, that seemed to be her lot in life. Then again, she had felt that way when Kaoru had introduced her to Sanosuke so maybe this guy wasn't so bad. Sano was a great guy when he wanted to be, and despite his laziness he was a good cop, too. Hopefully he had tagged along with the bachelor party, despite loudly complaining yesterday how expensive and pointless it would be when he had to work the next day. Megumi had told him to put up or shut up about it because she was fixing to have a great night out with the girls, and if she had to hear him complain about she was deserting him on date night then she might skip the next one too.

A woman in what Megumi would call an 'interesting' leather ensemble stumbled in with a man on her heels, both laughing, the man trying to grab the woman while she dodged coquettishly. Then the woman noted the mass of limbs in the corner and froze to the spot with a look of abject horror. Megumi perked up; things might get interesting now.

Whipping out a phone, the woman texted furiously fast despite a manicure that looked as if no practical tasks could be accomplished while it was on. The woman's beau tried to engage her interest a few more time before she got cross and appeared to send him packing with a shove and harsh words. Tapping a foot she kept glancing at the entrance to the lounge as if waiting for someone and Megumi finally decided to introduce herself.

"I take it the other one is yours."

"What?" Up close there was a dissolute look to the woman, like she was sleeping poorly or living roughly. No amount of makeup could hide the bags around the eyes or the unhealthy tinge to the thin skin around her hands.

"The one in the purple dress is with us. I had hoped someone would come collect the, hm, gentleman. He a friend of yours?"

The woman looked like she didn't really want to talk to Megumi. "Something like that." Apparently the woman also was not in a hurry to interrupt the lovers because neither of them made a motion to approach them, but they did stare a bit in exasperation and wonder. "How long…?"

"I've been here about twenty minutes, but who knows?" Lifting up her phone she took a couple more photos from this new angle. Better to be safe in case the others were blurry.

A hand blocked the last shot. "No photos, the boss doesn't like it."

"He doesn't look like he can protest right now. And something tells me he would probably rather have a picture of my friend than not. Your call, though." Indecision flashed across the woman's face and Megumi gave her canniest smile. Quickly the woman pulled out a phone and snapped a couple pictures. "Now open up a new contact…"

"What?" This woman didn't seem very quick on the uptake. Megumi huffed in irritation.

"I said open up a new contact then take this down…" she rattled off Kaoru's phone number and finished by walking back to Misao with a dismissive wave. "Tell him or not, as you like, but if you do tell him then I suggest he text. Odds are good my friend won't pick up for a strange number. She talks to people on the phone all day long and she hates doing it in her off hours."

An older man in a dirty suit burst through the door, rubbing his nose. Megumi was forgotten as the man and woman argued about who should be the one to go interrupt the 'boss.' It seemed as if there was at least one more show to watch this evening. Carefully positioning herself so as to be fairly inconspicuous, Megumi shook out her long hair and yawned. Then—when it seemed the old man had drawn the short straw and started the long walk to what would no doubt be a rather unpleasant interaction with his employer—Megumi pressed record.

Misao gave a short snore to her right and Megumi thought fondly again of how glad she was to have friends.


End file.
